


Our countdown

by asongofshipsandfeels



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Wolfstar - Fandom
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmates, meeting each other, mentions of family abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2015-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-12 12:44:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1186347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asongofshipsandfeels/pseuds/asongofshipsandfeels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my birthday gift to Mina! (luminaloveless.tumblr.com). I love you so much bby♥<br/>Pretty sure you have all seen that post that goes around Tumblr about the counter in people's wrists that counts down to when you meet your soulmate. Well, this is my Wolfstar version of the story!<br/>I wrote this a lot of time ago (nearly a year) in Spanish, and I posted it in my ff.net account. I've wanted to translate this and some other short fics for a long time, and now I saw the chance.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [luminaloveless (tumblr)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=luminaloveless+%28tumblr%29).



Like pretty much all the wizards and witches in Great Britain, Sirius Black was born with a countdown on his wrist that read approximately eleven years. More precisely, eleven years and ten months. That wasn't strange, because it's when they are eleven years old that young wizards start Hogwarts, and there's always a great chance that’s where they meet their other half, the person they are destined to.

...oOo...

A full moon night when he was six years old Sirius Black woke up in his bed. He felt terrified, and he didn't know why. His shoulder hurt a lot, even though he didn't have any physical injuries. Frightened, he turned on the lamp and checked his wrist, only to see his countdown read ten years more than when he had gone to sleep. He stayed in his bed in fetal position all night, too scared to sleep.  
What Sirius didn't know is that that night, on the other side of the country, the kid whose countdown read exactly the same time as his had been bitten by a lycanthrope.  
Sirius was already used to having a larger countdown than all the children of his parents' friends. "They must be a muggle" they say, horrified "or worse, a mudblood". Sirius agreed and looked horrified too, though internally he wondered, why did it matter his soulmate was a muggle, if they loved each other?  
The only time he expressed that feeling he got a punishment from his mother and a two-hour-long lecture from his father about the purity of blood and the duties of the Black heir, so he didn't repeat it again. Toujours pur, they reminded him.

...oOo...

Sirius was eleven and thought he would have to wait ten more years to find his soulmate when suddenly his countdown reduced to three months. Exactly the time he had left to go to Hogwarts. That was received as great news in the Black household, despite the fact that everyone couldn't help but think Sirius' soulmate was a mudblood who had just received her Hogwarts letter.  
The night Sirius' countdown decreased was the same night the Lupin received the visit of an old headmaster in their house, who told them it didn't matter little Remus suffered from lycanthropy, there was a place for him in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

...oOo...

The great day was here. September 1st, 1971.  
"She better be a good pureblood heir, Sirius. And she must go to Slytherin, like you. Ravenclaw is acceptable too, but don't even thing about Gryffindor or, Merlin help us, Hufflepuff." Walburga Black threatened her son, ignoring the fact that he couldn't decide who his soulmate was.  
"Your mother and I will be proud of you whoever they are, Remus." John Lupin said sweetly, crouching in front of his son and hugging him "You simply relax and enjoy it, this will be the most important day of your life." John Lupin closed his eyes, a single tear rolling down his cheek, and Remus knew he was remembering the day he and his mother had met. Now, the red numbers on his father's wrist meant he would never see her again. 

...oOo...

His father helped him rise the trunk to the train and Remus pulled it through the corridors, entering the first half-empty wagon he found, with a boy called Andrew and two girls called Sarah and Anne. Sarah was a half-blood, like him, and Anne and Andrew were muggleborn.  
While the girls gossiped about their counters, which read between a few hours and a week, he started talking with Andrew. As a muggleborn, the boy knew really little about Hogwarts, but he was excited to learn, so he listened carefully to Remus' explanations about Hogwarts Houses, talking paintings and new subjects.  
"Which house do you think you will be in?" Andrew asked him.  
"I don't know. My dad was in Hufflepuff, but he says that I'll be a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor. You?" he looked at the girls.  
"My mum went to Hufflepuff too, all her family have always gone there. I'd really like to go there, like her." Sarah answered.  
"Well, I don't know where I'll be, all of them sound really cool." Anne said.  
"Yeah, I think so too. Though Ravenclaw would be cool, I love learning." Andrew stated, and the four of them continued talking until the train reached Hogsmeade. While that conversation lasted, Remus found himself laughing a couple of times, and he nearly forgot he wasn't a normal boy. 

...oOo...

On the other side of the train, a black-haired boy looked disappointedly at a just closed door.  
"I don't understand," he told his new friend "It should have been beautiful and romantic, shouldn't it? Well, it's how I've always been told it would be."  
"I don't know, but maybe you shouldn't have insulted the greasy one. Apparently he's her friend..."  
"Yeah, maybe..." James turned his back to Sirius and glanced through the windows, lost in his thoughts "But Lily..." he mentally repeated that name, Lily." She has hardly talked to me, I think she hasn't even realized the light in our counters." the boy touched his counter over his robe sleeve.  
"Don't worry, dude." Sirius answered looking at his counter, decreasing at every second that passed "You know who she is, and you have seven years to get rid of Snivellus and make her love you. I don't even know who they are yet..." 

...oOo...

The first year students entered the Great Hall after Professor McGonagall and between the whispers of the older students.  
After the Hat's song the first girl to face it was Sarah Abbott, and she went to Hufflepuff. Two students later it was Sirius' turn.  
 _Be brave, Sirius_ the boy told himself while he walked the few steps to the Hat. He sat and looked at the Slytherin table, from where several members of his family were observing him. _Be brave, you are not like them_.  
"Interesting, really interesting... Another little Black." the Sorting Hat whispered in his ear "I see. Ambitious, but also brave and loyal. Your beliefs are strong and you'll fight for what you want and for what you think is right. Now I know where you belong: GRYFFINDOR!"  
Smiling and without looking at the surprised faces of his family, Sirius went to the lions' table in the middle of a huge applause. With all the emotion of that moment, the first Black in the history of Gryffindor didn't notice a little tickling in his wrist, nor did he see how his counter decreased some more hours.  
Some minutes later and wearing a shy smile, Remus Lupin also joined the Gryffindor table and sat next to Lily Evans, without noticing the black-haired boy who was sitting a few seats to his right and talking with his new best friend. 

...oOo...

Once all the students had sat with their new housemates, Dumbledore stood up and silence fell in the Great Hall.  
"Welcome, welcome to another year here at Hogwarts! I know you are all so hungry, so I'll be brief.  
"First of all, and really important, a new tree has been planted on the school grounds. I ask you not to approach it, because it can be really dangerous."  
"Seven new prank items have been added to the forbidden items list, you can check the entire list at Mr Filch's office." he pointed at the man.  
"And one more thing, that probably is the thing first years are more interested in." Dumbledore smiled "You must know the Great Hall has a spell that keeps connections from happening here, to avoid chaos. As soon as you get out of these doors they will be possible again, but I ask you not to stay there and go to your common rooms. You will have plenty of time!"  
"And now, you can eat!" the headmaster clapped his hands, and huge plates of food appeared all over the five tables. The students started talking again, happy to be back home. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will you believe me if I tell you I've had this written in the memos of my phone for months, and I forgot to upload it? Yeah, I suck at life. I'm so sorry!

When dinner was over Sirius and James followed the Gryffindor prefects to the seventh floor, where their new common room was located. Despite both of them having been raised among magic, spells and talking portraits, they didn't stop pointing at things around them.  
While the female prefect told them the common's room password (Leo fortis) and showed them the staircase to their dorms, another boy joined them.  
"You two already knew each other?" the boy, who had introduced himself as Peter Pettigrew, asked while he chose a bed in a side of the room.  
"Nope, we met at the train." James chose the bed next to Peter's, and Sirius laid on the next one.  
"But I think we are cousins twice removed or something like that." Sirius added.  
"Are you related?"  
"I don't know for sure, but I bet you something we are. All pureblood families are related a way or another." James explained Peter, who looked confused.  
"Are you purebloods? I mean, real purebloods. My mum and my dad are both wizards, but my dad's parents were muggles."  
"We are both considered purebloods, but I think there was a muggle Potter four generations ago."  
"Not four generations, five." Sirius corrected him "I had to study all the families when I was little, it was sooo boring!"  
"I feel you, mate." James answered while he started emptying his trunk and left his robe on top of it, like the prefect had asked them to: the elves would take care of sewing their new house creasts on them during the night, and would also leave them their new ties.  
"Yeah. You know who'll be in that bed?" Sirius rested his back against the headboard and pointed to the empty bed, but before any of his roommates could say anything the answer entered the room with a shy smile.  
"Good night, excuse me for being so late. I stayed talking with the prefect. I'm Remus Lupin." The boy looked around the room to the other three boys, his eyes met Sirius', and something happened. Underneath their sleeves their counters reached zero at the same time and glowed, while Sirius stood up from his bed and walked to the door.  
"Hey, I'm Sirius Black. Nice to meet you." Sirius offered him his hand and the best smile an eleven-year-old could make, praying to Merlin that his face didn't show how nervous he actually was.  
"He- hello. Nice to meet you too." Remus took his hand but after shaking it for a few seconds neither of them let the other go, still looking at each other.  
"Well, welcome." Sirius looked apart and let his hand go with the excuse of pointing at the bedroom's only empty bed, the one next to his "I think this is your bed, isn't it?"  
"Yeah, it is." Remus sat on the bed and looked at him "Thank you, Sirius."

...oOo...

Spring of 1976. 5th year Gryffindor boys' bedroom.  
"You know, I'm so happy they don't burn little children's counters any more." Sirius stated, lying on the bed with his head on Remus' lap while the prefect stroked his hair and read a book he was recently given for his birthday. The curtains surrounding the bed were closed, hiding them from the world.  
"What are you talking about?" Remus asked distractedly, running his fingers between the black locks of hair.  
"Not so long ago, pureblood families used to burn their heirs' counters so they wouldn't fall in love on their own and they would marry who their families wanted them to marry."  
"That's horrible!" Remus brought his hand to his wrist, like he could protect his counter just by covering it with his fingers "But... our counters are a huge part of who we are. That is forbidden now, isn’t it?”  
“Yep, it is.” Sirius sat up so his eyes were on level with Remus’ “The Ministry passed the law at the beginning of the century, but some families kept doing it for a while. And obviously, the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was one of them.” He said with a mocking tone.  
Remus didn’t reprimand Sirius for the joke, as he knew that sometimes humour was the only way the boy had to keep going and forget the horrors he had faced in his childhood home. “And do you know what happened to the soulmates?”  
“The ministry researched it before passing the law. Apparently their counters turned red and it was so painful that sometimes they even died.”  
“Holy shit…” Remus buried his head in his hands before Sirius could see the single tear rolling down his cheek. “I don’t wanna think what would have happened if they had done that to you.”  
“They didn’t.” Sirius leaned to Remus, peeled his hands away from his face and kissed him. “They didn’t, and I’m here with you.”  
“You are right, they didn’t.” a small smile came to Remus’ lips, and he kissed Sirius again “You are here.”


End file.
